Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week": New Belgium "1554" Enlightened Black Ale
By Chuck Sudo in Food on Jan 10, 2007 5:00PM
Our apathy towards Fat Tire aside, Chicagoist quickly discovered that the New Belgium Brewery would be our idea of a dream brewery, and working quality control there is in our top five dream jobs, if we didn't have to pull up stakes and leave Chicago in order to do so.
The third-largest craft brewery in the nation, New Belgium is an employee-owned company that practices open-book management, is committed to fostering a progressive social agenda through philanthropy ($1 for every barrel of beer sold is donated to charitable organizations within its distribution territory), and — most impressively — sustainability. New Belgium is a brewery powered by 100 percent wind energy, works to conserve water through recapture and reuse, uses green building technologies in its warehouses, is committed to reducing greenhouse gases, and recycles whenever and wherever it can. Because every employee has a stake in the company — and gets a cruiser bicycle after one year of employment — they all have a stake in ensuring that what they produce is of the highest quality. Lucky for beer geeks, foodies, and other ubiquitous gourmands, their brews pass muster with flying colors.
One of our favorite New Belgium selections is their "1554" Enlightened Black Ale, a zwartbier. So named because New Belgium brewers/owners Phil Benstein and Peter Bouckaert researched the existence of the style back to the year 1554, this beer is unlike any other dark beer we've ever encountered. Decanting our first bottle months ago, we expected something with more weight, like a porter. Though we picked up the coffee and chocolate malts on the palate normally associated with porters, what we got was an inky brown lager, akin to an altbier. This was a beer rich in flavor that wasn't going to fill us up with a half-bottle. Because of its lighter gravity, we were able to pair this with whipped sweet potatoes and a vanilla liqueur-infused butter during Thanksgiving dinner, with surprisingly positive results.
To this date, Fat Tire is the only New Belgium offering available in Illinois, but we're hoping that improvements to their production line lead to a wider range of New Belgium brews hitting shelves this year. Until then, you can shop for "1554" here if we managed to pique your interest. If it weren't for the gateway of Fat Tire, we wouldn't have been clued into everything else that New Belgium does, including "1554" Enlightened Black Ale, Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week."